Doosan Ships Soccer Field-Size Viet Desalination Plant to Saudis

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean power equipment maker
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. said its Vietnamese
unit is shipping its second locally made water desalination
plant, one the size of a soccer field, to Saudi Arabia.

The three-story, single-piece “plug and play” unit built
at Doosan Vina’s complex in Quang Ngai Province in central
Vietnam weighs 3,500 tons and when operational will produce
about 91 million liters (24 million gallons) of drinking water a
day from salty seawater, the Viet subsidiary said.

The plant is part of a $1.2 billion contract between Doosan
and the operator of the Ras Al Khair desalination project on the
Red Sea in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, that’s envisioned as the world’s
largest. The project includes manufacturing eight desalination
units at Doosan Vina and in Korea, the company said in a
statement. The first ‘Made in Vietnam’ unit shipped in 2009.

Shipping this unit to Saudi Arabia will take a month. Once
all the multi-stage flash desalination plants are installed,
they will produce three-quarter billion liters of fresh water a
day, enough for about 3 million households, the company said.

Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer with the Arab
world’s biggest economy, is building power stations to cope with
growing demand and desalination plants to supply drinking water
to lessen the country’s reliance on petroleum exports.